


Long, Lost and Previously Dead

by CoopPenny



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Compulsion, F/M, Jeremy Gilbert-centric, Kidnapping, Klaus Mikaelson Being Klaus Mikaelson, Neglect, Nightmares, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Overprotective, Possessive Behavior, Protective Elijah Mikaelson, Protective Finn Mikaelson, Protective Klaus Mikaelson, Protective Kol Mikaelson, Protective Rebekah Mikaelson, Reincarnation, Threats, adorable Jeremy
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:20:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 20,293
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26733487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoopPenny/pseuds/CoopPenny
Summary: Jeremy has these weird dreams sometimes that he can’t really remember when he wakes up. He generally thinks nothing of them and he has more important things to worry about in his life than an odd dream or two.Well, that is until the Mikaelsons come crashing into the town like a damn freight train…
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Jeremy Gilbert, Damon Salvatore/Andie Star, Elena Gilbert/Stefan Salvatore, Jeremy Gilbert & Elijah Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert & Finn Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert & Klaus Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert & Kol Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert & Rebekah Mikaelson, Jeremy Gilbert & The Original Family
Comments: 34
Kudos: 209





	1. A familiar face

**Author's Note:**

  * For [LivingDeaDGirl244](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivingDeaDGirl244/gifts).



> It’s got a bit of swearing in it - just a warning!

Everything was too fast and too slow, too vivid and too faded, his perception was dizzying and yet completely focused. What terrified him the most, other than the confusing environment, was the fact that Jeremy was completely aware that this was a dream, or he thinks its a dream…

Disoriented and vision blurring in and out, Jeremy tried to look at his surroundings, taking in a green leaf that nearly hit him in the face as he rushed by and then stared around at the blurry image of brown columns that he could only guess were trees. The area was dimly lit but at the same time, it was all too bright, silver and gold light flashing around him at odd intervals, but Jeremy was never blinded by the differences as he rushed passed the wooded areas.

It took him an embarrassingly long amount of time for Jeremy to figure out that someone was holding his hand, dragging him through the forest, but no matter what he did, Jeremy couldn’t seem to drag his eyes further than the hand that was clasped within his own. However, as he concentrated on the hand, he noticed that the appendage seemed to change, pale hands belonging to a man changing to a more delicate long-fingered feminine before changing to one that bore more scars and it carried on changing.

“… ic…” a distorted voice interrupted his thoughts and Jeremy blinked with confusion. Why did his mind feel so slow? What was wrong with him? “… see… gerous… b… ur sure… go… werewolves…”

“What?” Jeremy tried to get out, but his tongue felt heavy and wouldn’t cooperate with his mind.

“ _Werewolves…_ ” the voice said again and Jeremy was finally able to raise his head enough to see the person who was dragging him through the blurred forest by his hand, but he could barely make out an outline as he tried to blink and squint to see who the person was. He couldn’t make out anything.

“ ** _Werewolves…_** ”

“What about werewolves?” Jeremy asked, the question spoken so much slower than Jeremy had intended it. It felt like he was forced into a slow-motion reality, but his mind was at the speed of normal time, making him frustrated and confused.

Suddenly, Jeremy was falling, falling, falling…

It felt like he was going to fall forever when he suddenly hit a hard surface, forcing all the air from his lungs. Scared and confused, Jeremy tried to scramble up, but his body felt numb and he was barely about to crawl to his hands and knees before he looked up…

Supernatural, glowing amber eyes peered at Jeremy from the pitch black that no light seemed to be able to penetrate but those beastly eyes.

Bone-deep terror-filled Jeremy to his very core as he stared at those eyes.

Suddenly, the beast leapt forward, sharp white teeth glinting in the silver moonlight-

“ _NO!_ ”-

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

_Beep._

Hand floundering, Jeremy grabbed his blaring alarm and practically ripped it from the cord in the wall to finally shut it off.

When silence descended his dark room once again, Jeremy let out a shuddering breath and tried to wipe the sweat that had gathered on his forehead, but stopped when he realised that he was still holding the alarm. Dropping the device on his bed, Jeremy practically leapt from the covers and made his way to the bathroom to get a shower. Jeremy didn’t even try to be quiet in the much-too-early hours of the morning, he knew that he was alone in the house and he’d long since given up the pretence of imagining that there was…

Under the heat of the water, glass already fogging up with how hot he’d turned it, Jeremy wiped away his latest night of horror, robotically going through the routine of scrubbing himself clean, rubbing himself nearly raw as he tried to remove the lingering feel of hands all over him, nerve-endings still remembering the dream despite the fact that Jeremy couldn’t remember a single thing. That was a normal thing for Jeremy, these days. He’d have a horrifically intense dream and when he woke up, he’d be sweating and scared with no memory of why he was like that. The only thing that seemed to stay with him was the fact that he was scared - terrified - and the fact that he’d died.

The dreams had started when his parents had died.

He saw a school therapist for a while during the summer, but each time he went he felt no better and stopped attending the sessions in the end. Grief had kept Jeremy hidden in his room and his recurring nightmares made his nights just as hard. In the end, Jeremy had turned to drugs. He’d discovered that the drugs helped both the days and nights: during the day, he was too stoned to care about anything other than his next hit or the burn of cheap booze pouring down his throat; during the nights if Jeremy was stoned and drunk enough, he’d get no dreams and wouldn’t wake up in a cold sweat.

However, with the vampire business that had moved into town, things had steadily gotten more and more fucked up again. Fear and paranoia was now a constant presence in his every waking moment - Elena having left him in a house which had been invaded by far too many vampires for him to ever feel comfortable - and his anxiety and stress seemed to show in school as his teachers tried to contact Jenna, but she just assured them that Jeremy was just going through something. The excuse seemed to work because when wasn’t he going through something. First was his parents' deaths, then Vicky went missing before she turned up dead and then just as he was beginning to heal from that heartbreak, Anna was brutally killed by his uncle… It was just one thing after another and Jeremy could practically feel himself cracking under the pressure.

That certain track-record made Jeremy even warier and scared when it came to Bonnie, his new girlfriend. More often than not, Jeremy felt so much fear for what would happen to Bonnie that he’d considered breaking up with her more than he was truly willing to admit; the only thing that held him back from doing so was the fact that he loved her and if he loved her and trusted her, then he should have faith in her.

Finishing up with his shower, Jeremy hopped out from the stall and wrapped a towel around himself before he walked up to the mirror and wiped away the condensation. His reflection was not of a carefree teenager that was up for a good laugh and chasing girls like he should be at his age. No, the bags under his eyes were too dark and prominent, his brown eyes looked a bit too haunted for someone who was carefree, his face was a little bit too pale for someone who should constantly be outside - instead he was trying to stay safe in the boundaries of his home as much as possible…

Lately, it felt like his dreams had gotten worse. They felt more frequent and intense to what he was usually used to and it made Jeremy itch for a little pill to take his mind off the daunting event that was his own dreams or maybe he could blaze up one of the cigarettes that he still kept in his desk drawer. However, as soon as the temptation entered his mind, Jeremy immediately felt repulsed by it and the urge disappeared (in those times, Jeremy wondered if Elena had asked Damon to compel Jeremy’s slowly growing addiction away as well as the memories of Vicky’s death).

Checking the time on his phone, Jeremy sighed. He had an hour before the start of school, but he didn’t want to stay in this empty house anymore. Maybe he can hang out in the library and do a bit of homework before classes started?

Grabbing his bag and stuffing them with the textbooks that he’d need for the day, Jeremy descended down the stairs to grab a bit of toast before leaving but paused on the last step when he caught movement in the kitchen. Fear shot through him like a bullet as he silently took out the stake from his inside jacket pocket - he always had three stakes hidden on him, no matter what - and silently crept down the last step and slowly made his way to the kitchen.

Peering around the corner, Jeremy finally released his breath when he saw that it was just John making a coffee. Hiding the stake away, Jeremy went to creep back and leave the house without his uncle’s knowledge - he didn’t want to speak to the man any more than he had to.

“Good morning, Jeremy,” the casual greeting came and Jeremy hissed a curse between his lips as he froze up in the hall.

“Morning,” he grumbled from his hiding space, not moving out from behind the doorway in a reluctance to actually converse with the man.

“It’s a little early to be up for school isn’t it?” John prodded and Jeremy could practically hear the accusation in his tone - accusation from what though, Jeremy didn’t know.

Sighing, the teen stepped out from the doorway and crossed his arms as he stared down into his uncle’s crystal eyes, “I’m going to the library, you got a problem with that?”

The man’s thin lips twitched into a vague smile before he took a sip from his coffee, eyes knowing and judging as he stared at his nephew, “No problem at all. I’m glad you’re taking your studies more seriously,” he smiled again and Jeremy finally understood why Elena had always hated their uncle, his meticulous nature was starting to rub Jeremy the wrong way.

Just as the teen was about the leave again, John spoke up once again, “You look tired. You getting a good enough sleep?” he questioned and instantly Jeremy felt his nerves bristling with irritation, anger and irritation flooding his system as he glared down at his uncle with cold dark eyes.

“I sleep just fine.”

John merely rose his eyebrows, the emotion on his face at an all-time minimal, at Jeremy’s clipped tone. “It was just a question Jere,” he defended, “I get concerned about you sometimes.”

At that, Jeremy couldn’t resist a bark of harsh laughter that left him as he shook his head and grinned humorously, “Yeah, right. You don’t care about anyone but yourself and Isabel.” he hissed.

“Excuse me?” John started in a dangerous tone as he slowly got up from his seat at the breakfast bar and set his coffee down, “I care about you. I care about this family. I care about yours and Elena’s safety and health. I care about this town and its people-“

“ _Stop lying to me!_ ” Jeremy thundered, his voice ringing throughout the kitchen as he glared murderously at his uncle, feeling completely done with the man, “If you cared you would have been here from the fucking start! You would have been there for me and Elena when mum and dad died, you would have been there when Elena met the Salvatores, you would have been here to help us when we needed you, not because Isabel snapped her fingers and told you to! If you cared about Elena, you would have told her that you were her real father when she was looking for you! If you really cared about me, you wouldn’t have _killed my girlfriend!_ ” Jeremy shouted, each proclamation bringing him closer and closer to John until he was barely an inch away from the man and thrusting an angry finger in his face. “Everything you’ve done to ‘help’ us, has only ever brought us more pain…”

Silence hung around them like a guillotine, ready to fall at any moment as Jeremy breathed deeply to get his temper under control and John stared at Jeremy with unreadable eyes.

“I may have not been there for you then,” John finally spoke up, the admittance making Jeremy blink in slight shock, “But I’m here now and I can see you suffering. Being in this kind of life isn’t easy and it isn’t something that a kid as young as you should have ever been involved in and I never wanted this for you - neither did your parents… All I’m trying to say is that I’m here for you, now.”

Jeremy scoffed as he turned away from the older man and started to walk out the kitchen, “I’ll believe it when I see it,” was all he said before he marched himself out of the house and slammed the front door.

* * *

God, Klaus swore that if he ever had to go undercover into another high school, it would be too soon.

As someone who’s lived for over a thousand years, one would think that history was a favourite topic of his, but in actuality, he hated the subject. Well, he cared for his own history, his triumphs and achievements (he really did miss the days in which he could slaughter an entire village of people and, still, none would be privy to the existence of vampires), but the idea of learning about other wars and battles and the statistics of deaths and all that other rubbish. It was all very boring.

It didn’t really help when all he could feel was growing irritation for all the students at the school. As a history teacher, Klaus got very little respect to what he was used to. The teenagers were visibly bored during the class and often interrupted his class with rude inputs to which Klaus had tried to grin and bear it, all while imagining himself ripping apart their necks and draining them dry.

The fact that Klaus wasn’t in his own body didn’t help either. While some of his supernatural abilities passed over to his human vessel, his compulsion being his main skill, the human was still weak. Klaus’ senses had been dulled and dampened, unable to hear across the classroom, let alone a few corridors down, and his sight had been greatly diminished. What was probably worse was the fact that his speed and strength were practically nonexistent whilst he was in this body. Sure, if the body was killed, Klaus would just go back to his own, but that didn’t take away the niggling annoyance of currently feeling so weak. There was also the fact that the body itself was annoying as hell. Klaus hated the clothes the man usually wore, hated the way he barely styled his hair and allowed it to fall over one side of his forehead and hated the American accent that flowed from the man’s lips. It just wasn’t Klaus’ body and his impatience to get out of it only grew.

Honestly, Klaus had only wanted to get his eyes on his doppelgänger and maybe learn a little bit more about the group he was going to kill - he needed all the information he could get, especially if that thing about the Witch was true.

He saw Elena Gilbert in the first hour of the school day, as well as the rest of the little group. Part one accomplished. But then, to keep his cover as the history teacher, Klaus had to go through the entire day teaching a bunch of kids he’d rather just kill.

By the last period of the day, Klaus was more than ready to just leave the establishment and never go back but held back the irrational move by reassuring himself that it was only one hour left and then he was finished.

This was one of his youngest classes, the kids ranging from ages fourteen to fifteen - Freshmen, who would soon go into their sophomore year in a few short months. The only upside to the class was the knowledge that this was supposed to be Elena’s little brother’s class - if the register was anything to go by. Klaus didn’t even bother to look up at the students as he pretended to write some notes in a little book that Alaric kept on his desk.

When the bell went off, Klaus glanced up and gave a fake smile, “Alright class,” he started for what felt like the thousandth time that day but froze when his eyes landed on someone in the second row, seated closest to one of the windows.

Words seemed to dry up in Klaus’ throat as he openly stared at the familiar features that he hadn’t seen in so many years. Sure, his hair was shorter and he looked a little older than how Klaus remembered him, but no matter how old the vampire got, he would never forget the colour of that floppy brown hair, he would never forget the position of those little moles that dotted the side of his pale face, would never forget the shade of deep, earthy brown that burned amber in the sunlight. Klaus could never forget the face of his most precious little brother, who’d died before he and the others had been turned into vampires.

Never before had Klaus even considered the possibility of ever being able to see Henrik again, and he never expected his little brother to be none other than Jeremy Gilbert…

* * *

Anxiety weighed on Jeremy’s mind throughout the whole day, getting increasingly more overwhelming as the day wore on. Jeremy wasn’t sure that Bonnie knew how he felt about her dying. She seemed to be so… okay with it like it was her role and responsibility to be the dying martyr of their group, her sacrifice being necessary for the ‘greater good’ as a dedicated ‘servant of nature’. Never mind the fact that she had a family she would be leaving behind, never mind the fact that she was a seventeen-year-old kid, never mind that she would be leaving Jeremy all alone to crumble after losing yet another loved one…

Throughout the entire day, he’d been conflicted and so close to having panic attacks that he’d excused himself from every class except Alaric’s. He couldn’t concentrate of anything other than Bonnie telling him that she might die with when she saved his sister, stressing to him the fact that it was the only way and that he should have faith in her.

It felt unfair.

It felt like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. What was he supposed to do? Did he tell the others and loose Bonnie’s faith and trust in him and also lose his sister along the way? Or did he keep his mouth shut and silently watched Bonnie walk to her death? He swore to God, no other fifteen-year-old had to go through these kinds of decisions…

Anxiety seemed to take roots in him throughout the day. Not only did it weigh heavily on his shoulders, but he felt it building with every step he walked, felt it squeezing at his heart with every beat, felt it inching into his lungs, making it hard to breathe, and felt it invading his subconscious thoughts as evert time he closed his eyes he saw flashes of dark, glassy, dead eyes that looked like Bonnie’s… It felt like his thoughts were eating him alive and by the time night fell and he was walking towards the gym doors, the music thumping through his chest in time with his heart, the anxiety felt like it was going to cripple him.

As soon as the entered the dance, Jeremy felt like he was hyperaware of his surroundings, eyes scanning over every entrance and exit as he tried to think of a getaway plan for when everything went pear-shaped, as it usually does.

Suddenly, the music simmered down and one of the organisers, a cheerleader probably, that Jeremy couldn’t remember the exact name of took the stage and grinned widely at the crowd, "Thanks for being here everybody,” and the whole gym cheered loudly, making Jeremy flinch slightly at the loudness. Bonnie gave him a concerned glance and squeezed his hand in comfort before they both concentrated on the stage again. "We have a special shout-out tonight! This is for Elena. From Klaus,” she finished and then the music went up again and it left Jeremy feeling more chilled to the core than he had been for the entire day.

Jeremy was barely paying attention to what the others were saying as he tried to breathe properly, concentrating on not having any kind of panic attack at the prospect that Klaus was here. Because if Klaus was here, then Bonnie would go after him. And if Bonnie went after Klaus, then she was going to die…

“Good idea,” Bonnie’s voice filtered into his head, making Jeremy blink and push away his spiralling thoughts.

The teen had only a moment of confusion before he registered the fact that Bonnie was trying to lead him out to the dance floor. Instant reluctance took over as Jeremy tried to gently tug Bonnie back and shook his head, “No, no, I really don’t feel like dancing,” he pleaded, but his pleads were dismissed as Bonnie cast him a mischievous grin over her shoulder and she just pulled him harder.

“Too bad.”

Together, the couple swayed to the music and Jeremy could almost pretend that Bonnie wasn’t on a suicide mission. As he stared deeply into her beautiful eyes, her hands warm around his neck as they just settled in one another’s company, Jeremy felt like he was just dancing with his girlfriend and not feeling like she was saying goodbye to him without actually saying the words.

All too soon, the image was shattered when Damon stepped up beside them, trademark smirk on his lips as he focused ice-blue eyes on Bonnie, “May I?” he questioned, all while sounding like he was making a demand.

Reality shattering the image once again, Jeremy cast one last desperate look at Bonnie before he gave a slight nod and walked away. It took everything in Jeremy to not say anything to anyone as he marched himself out of the gym and into one of the dark and desolate corridors of the school, hands trembling and breath stuttering as he tried to control his feelings of helplessness. Jeremy couldn’t help but feel a little bit betrayed by Bonnie. She spoke to him about her death and sacrifice for Elena, telling him that Elena was her best friend and had to save her - Bonnie would die for Elena, so why couldn’t she live for Jeremy? It felt like Bonnie was choosing his sister over him, even after telling her his fears of losing her, even after telling her that he loved her, she was still choosing Elena.

“Shit!” Jeremy hissed between his teeth as he tried to stop the burning in his eyes. He couldn’t cry. He couldn’t break down. Not here. Not now.

“Jeremy,” Stefan called from down the hall as he jogged towards Jeremy, concern in his eyes, "What are you doing? Elena thinks we should stick together.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” the teen croaked out and then cleared his throat, wincing when Stefan gave him a disbelieving look and stepped forward as if to hug the teenager. Contact was the last thing Jeremy needed right now, and so he stepped back and waved his hand, “I’ve got my ring,” he tried to smile, but the muscles in his face didn’t seem to want to cooperate as his lips twitched down and tears blurred his vision, “It’s… It’s Bonnie…”

“What is it?” Stefan questioned, voice soft and comforting and his hand twitched slightly as if he wanted to touch the teen. If Jeremy had the will to smile, he would, Stefan was always the only one of the group that seemed to remember Jeremy’s age. While it had frustrated Jeremy when the group threw his age in his face in an effort to ‘protect’ him, it now seemed like they expected him to be okay with everything and shoulder his emotions in order to get a job done. Stefan was always the one who asked him if he was okay when Jeremy really needed it… “Hey,” the vampire prompted, giving the hesitant teen an imploring look, “You got something on your mind, spit it out.”

At that moment, Jeremy’s inner battle seemed to fall away and only one option was clear to him - he just hoped Bonnie forgave him for blabbing her secret. "If Bonnie takes on Klaus, channelling all that energy's going to kill her.”

The silence between the pair was nearly suffocating as Stefan’s eyes grew wide and he looked at Jeremy with alarm and disbelief.

“What?”

"But she doesn't want Elena to know, 'cause if Elena knows, she's gonna try to stop her. And it's Elena that could turn up dead, so…” Jeremy stuttered out a breath as he wrapped his fingers around his hair and a tear escaped from his eyes before he could stop it, “What am I supposed to do?”

At the sound of his desperate question, Stefan seemed to drop all pretences of keeping away from the teen as Jeremy suddenly found himself wrapped up in Stefan’s arms, the vampire’s hand in his hair as he tried to shush Jeremy and calm him down, rocking them slightly. “You’re not supposed to do anything. Leave it with me,” he assured Jeremy as he untangled his limbs from Jeremy, “I’ll take care if it.” and then from one blink to the next, Stefan was gone and Jeremy finally felt like he could properly breathe again.

Unwilling to get back to the party, Jeremy shoved his hands in his pockets and walked further down the dark hallways, feeling the constant thrum of the loud music fade from his chest the further to walked away. When he couldn’t feel the music at all, Jeremy took a deep breath. He felt so much better already. Getting away from the party and telling Stefan about Bonnie had done wonders to relax him and he didn’t feel like he was constantly choking.

However, nothing good ever seemed to last long in this town as Jeremy spotted three boys that he recognised from school waiting for him in the dark. A bad feeling rose in his chest, but Jeremy didn’t let that cow him as he carried on walking towards the waiting boys, "What's going on, guys?”

"You okay, Gilbert? You don't look so good,” the ringleader said and Jeremy could instantly tell from the tone that the three guys weren’t looking for any peaceful conversation to take place.

Holding up his hands placatingly, Jeremy glared at the leader, "Dude, seriously? Wrong day, wrong guy.”

However, that seemed to do nothing to deter them as the first guy swung his fist and clocked Jeremy in the jaw, hard enough for the younger teen to accidentally bit his lip and make it bleed. Before Jeremy even had a chance to recover, the other two leapt at him and grabbed his arms, fingers digging into his arms hard enough to bruise, and then he felt a familiar pain as the lead-guy punched him in the nose, blood instantly beginning to flow down - though it wasn’t hard enough to break, which Jeremy was thankful for. After that, Jeremy felt a few punches landing on his stomach before the two boys released his arms and threw him to the floor, a rain of kicks landing on him in all directions. All Jeremy could do was curl up as much as he could and wait for the beating to be over-

“Hey, idiots!” a voice interrupted and the kicking finally stopped. Jeremy breathed a sigh of relief, never before had Jeremy been thankful to hear Damon’s voice.

Glancing up, Jeremy was quick enough to see the leader pull out a crossbow and fire a wooden stake without a second of hesitation. The stick, impaling the dark vampire’s shoulder.

"Let me guess…” Damon grunted as he pulled out the stake, "Klaus says hi?”

It was all a blur of movement and by the time Jeremy was able to get his feet back under him, the three compelled teens were down and Stefan and Damon were talking. “Go find Bonnie and Elena. I got this. Go.” Stefan nodded to Damon and the older vampire didn’t need to be told twice before he was speeding away. “You okay?” Stefan questioned as he looked over Jeremy, taking in the bloody lip and nose.

“No,” Jeremy managed to get out, breathe unsteady as he tried to breathe around his injured ribs. In an instant, the vampire was beside Jeremy, steady hands grabbing his arm and slowly allowing Jeremy to straighten out properly.

“You okay?” Stefan asked again, a conflicted look in his eyes like he wanted to go after the others, but also didn’t want to leave Jeremy alone and vulnerable.

Nodding, Jeremy tried to wipe some of the blood on his face away, “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Go help Damon.”

The vampire didn’t need much more prompting as he nodded and sped away, leaving Jeremy in the dark, empty hallway, surrounded by three unconscious teenagers. Slowly, Jeremy made his way to the toilets, wincing every now and again because of his tender ribs, trying to go faster and clean up so he could go and help the others. But, Jeremy couldn’t go out with a bloodied face, that was just asking for attention.

Slipping into the toilets and turning the taps, Jeremy wasted no time in grabbing a wad of paper towels and running it under warm water. Without much hesitation, Jeremy started to wipe away the blood, ignoring the way the water turned pink before it slipped down the drain. “Shit!” Jeremy hissed between his teeth when he dabbed at his slip lip with a little too much enthusiasm, before carrying on with the task. It was quite sad that Jeremy was so used to cleaning blood off his face that the task felt like nothing more than a hindrance.

Throwing the bloodied paper towel in the bin, Jeremy was about to start looking for the others, when drowsiness suddenly took over him. Exhausted, Jeremy was unable to catch himself when his knees gave out, but just before he hit the floor, arms caged around him before he felt his body being lifted from the cold, grimy floor of the school toilets.

“Who…” was all Jeremy was able to slur before his eyes rolled and darkness swiftly took over…

* * *

Jeremy hummed as he snuggled into his pillow, comfortable and content in the warmth of his bed. It had been so long since he’d woken up naturally, no alarm to disturb him, no strange, terrifying dreams to startle him awake - it was a good sleep and Jeremy was very reluctant to get the day started and go to school. Jeremy frowned, he didn’t even remember getting in and going to bed. What happened yest-

Suddenly, Jeremy bolted upright and tried to look around him with wide, frightened eyes. He remembered the dance, the attack in the hallway and he remembered being in the toilets, but after that, he didn’t remember a thing…

“Where am I?” Jeremy questioned, voice still rough from sleep as he stumbled up from the bed and tried to calm down enough to look around and take in his surroundings. Frowning, Jeremy patted his ribs, feeling no pain where a rib had been at least bruised. So he’d been healed and that meant he’d been taken by a vampire, but as Jeremy looked around, he realised something: this was Ric’s place. He recognised the interior of the spare bedroom, the half-bare bricks and the whitewashed wooden furniture that was surprisingly fashionable for a single man, Jeremy had stayed in here many a time when he’d needed someplace to hide from Elena and the group. Jeremy must have been attacked and one of the Salvatores had given him blood, but why was he here? What happened? Was Bonnie alright?

Feeling more frantic and needing answers, Jeremy started to make his way to the door (distantly he noted that his shoes seemed to have been taken, but were not left in the room) and when he tried to turn the handle, he found that it was stuck, locked. His panic building, Jeremy tried again just to make sure before he abandoned his effort and walked towards the large windows. Sure, Jeremy was quite high up, but if he remembered correctly, it was the spare bedroom that has the fire-escape attached to it. Pulling the curtains out the way, Jeremy narrowed his eyes at the daylight that nearly blinded him, before he tried to slide the window open, but he only had the same results as the door. Pausing his efforts, Jeremy leaned closer to the window seal and spotted the reason why he couldn’t slide it open: there was a clear solution that had lined the entire thing, which Jeremy could only guess was superglue.

With nothing to pry the window open, Jeremy abandoned his task and glared at the door.

Marking up to the barrier, Jeremy banged on the wood, “Hey! Alaric!” Jeremy shouted, annoyance clear in his tone, “C’mon! Open the door!” he banged on the wood again, before he huffed in frustration, dragged a hand through his hair and stepped away for a second to calm down.

However, just as Jeremy stepped away, the door’s lock clicked off and in stepped Alaric. Jeremy felt a flood of relief at the sight of his sort-of-guardian and was about to ask why the door was locked when Jeremy suddenly felt the words stick in his throat. The teen didn’t know why, but just looking at Ric, it felt as if something was wrong. It was a niggling feeling that just wouldn’t go away and it made Jeremy take a wary step back. Jeremy may not have been the smartest kid in his grade, but he was far from stupid and he knew that if his instincts were telling him to run, then something was very wrong.

“Ric?” Jeremy asked as he furrowed his brows.

At Jeremy’s question, Alaric’s face twisted into a smile that he’d never seen before, it was like a shark’s grin and every fibre of Jeremy’s being was screaming that he was in danger. “Not quite,” Ric swaggered further into the room but made sure that he was still blocking the door from Jeremy’s escape.

“Who are you?” Jeremy demanded, all hint of hesitance gone from his voice as he tried to stand tall and stare down at the intruder.

“To your little group, my name is Klaus,” Alaric bowed his head slightly a small smirk in place and then his eyes seemed to soften for a moment, though that could have been a trick of the light, “But you may call me Niklaus.”

Jeremy didn’t think he’d ever gone through so many rapid emotions as he stared at Alaric- no, this was Klaus, not his aunt’s boyfriend. Fear, anger, confusion, panic, worry, curiosity, it was nearly impossible to distinguish which emotion he was feeling and which ones he wasn’t. Luckily, Jeremy was able to push his emotions aside as he took another step back, unwilling to be too close to the mad vampire, “Why am I here? What did you do to Bonnie?”

“Did you know that there are certain supernatural phenomenons that not even the Witches can verify,” Klaus started, tone educational as he stepped ever closer to Jeremy, who matched his possessed friend’s movements until his back bumped into a wall, “Sure, there are the standard vampires, witches, werewolves, doppelgängers, syphons and travellers, but there is one supernatural race in which can neither be confirmed nor denied and that is reincarnation. Do you know what that is?” Klaus prodded.

“Yes,” Jeremy gritted out, feeling uncomfortable with how close the man to him, “What’s that got to do with me?”

The expression on Alaric’s face changed into something that was actually familiar on the man’s face. It was an expression of love and sorrow, a loss which pained Klaus from long ago; Alaric usually had that expression when he thought about Isobel before he found out that she’d left him to become a vampire. Jeremy would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious as to who Klaus could have lost that had meant so much to him.

“You see,” Klaus started off, licking his lips in a nervous tick, “While I may be an original vampire, the first of my kind, there are other originals…”

“There are more of you?” Jeremy asked with a slight quiver in his voice. With all the fear, stress and trouble that Jeremy and the group had been put through because of one original vampire, Jeremy wasn’t sure if he was ready to face a reality in which there were several…

“Yes,” Klaus nodded, a touch of warmth to his smile, “In the beginning, when we were human, there were seven of us. Seven siblings. My eldest sibling, I never knew. She died before I ever got to meet. For many years, my family lived happily, until the youngest of my siblings, my little brother, Henrik, got attacked and killed by a werewolf. After that, my remaining siblings and I were turned into vampires and the rest is history. I loved my little brother very much, but I have long since accepted that I will never see him again, not even in death… That is until very recently when I saw you.”

There was a brief pause that hung in the air as Jeremy stared at the vampire, wariness and confusion in his eyes before he dared to open his mouth and speak the words that he thought the original was trying to hint at. “You think that I’m your brother?”

“No,” Klaus shook his head, tone stern as he looked at Jeremy with hard eyes, “I know you’re my brother. Same looks, same mannerisms, maybe you look a little old and your hair is a little shorter, but I would know my little brother anywhere and you are him. You are Henrik, reborn.”

“No, I’m not,” Jeremy denied instantly and he nearly retracted his statement at the narrowed look that earned him, but Jeremy gathered his courage and gritted his teeth, “I might be some kind of doppelgänger, or similar to your brother, but I'm not Henrik. My name is Jeremy Gilbert and my sister is Elena Gilbert. Nothing more, nothing less.”

A dark look entered Klaus’ face and Jeremy didn’t think he’d ever be able to look at Alaric the same, now that he knew the man could pull off such a murderous expression. Suddenly, Klaus was far too close to Jeremy for comfort, hands fisted into the 60s style vest that he still hadn’t taken off from the decade dance the night before, as he shoved Jeremy into the wall as he leaned in and whispered, “You may have convinced yourself of such claims, but I know differently brother,” he growled out and Jeremy gulped in fear and the man’s anger and intensity. Then, Klaus moved away, far away enough for Jeremy to finally breath easier, “Stay here. Don’t try to leave.”

“You can’t compel me,” Jeremy claimed with a glare, “I’m on vervain.”

“True,” Klaus nodded and then smirked, causing a shiver of fear to rush down the human’s spine, “But that doesn’t stop me from getting one of my witches to place a spell on the door and it’s only a matter of days until the vervain fades from your system,” and with that, Klaus turned on his heel and left the room. The sound of the lock clicking into place seemed to echo throughout the small room just as Jeremy managed to reach it.

“Wait! Wait!” Jeremy shouted, voice cracking with desperation, “What about Bonnie! What happened to Bonnie! Let me out! Klaus!”


	2. A day in a room

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES! It’s done! After all this time! The second chapter is done! Thank God!
> 
> Hope you enjoy it and beware of minor swearing (I can’t remember if I wrote any swearing in this chapter…).

“There was a time…” Elijah murmured as he cast his mind back to the past, back to a time when he did anything and everything for Klaus as part of their bond as brothers and the pact they both made, along with Rebecka, That Day, “I’d have done anything for Klaus…” Elijah thought back to when they were all human, looking out for one another and basking in the simplicity of life, a time before they were vampires before he understood what true grief and loss meant, “As his older brother it had always been in my best interests to protect and support him. However, these days, the novelty seems to have worn off.”

“What?” the doppelgänger nearly chocked out, doe brown eyes wide with undeniable shock as she looked at him with new eyes. He guessed that her reaction was warranted; Elena and her group had always assumed him as some old lackey of Niklaus’, his true identity put a whole new spin on events to come.

“Yes,” he nodded drolly, “Klaus is my brother.”

“I heard that. I’m still processing,” she stated, a wrinkle between her brows as she attempted to come to terms with the impossible piece of information that he had thrown at her.

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Elijah lifted his tea a little higher, "Yes, I'm a little behind on the times, but I believe the term you're searching for is ‘OMG’,” he took a sip from his tea to hide the amused quirk of his lips as Elena dragged her hands through her hair in minor distress.

Elena blinked, mind still trying to take in the information before she sighed and shook her head, seeming to give up on the process before she regained a new determined light in her eyes, “What about my brother? Is that another 'trick'? Will Jeremy be alright?” Elena questioned, voice gaining strength with the new subject change.

“Ah…” Elijah trailed off with a look of slight pain in his eyes before the emotion faded back into his mask, “While Klaus’ usual tricks do involve killing off one’s family one by one, I’m afraid Jeremy would be a different case altogether.”

“What do you mean?” Elena demanded, tone forceful and Elijah could see the surprisingly protective side of a girl who Elijah had only seen as a manipulative damsel in distress.

“The origin story of how my family were turned into vampires if a long one, and one I will not impart today,” Elijah sighed, an aching pain in his heart at the memory he was trying to delve up, “My mother bore seven children, but only five of us were turned into vampires, my youngest brother’s death being the catalyst for our turning. Henrik was barely thirteen summers before he was killed by werewolves during a full moon and the loss of our little brother was staggering to all of us, most of all to Klaus, who loved Henrik very, very dearly.” Elijah sighed again, remembering how pale Niklaus’ face was when he emerged from the woods, clutching Henrik’s small, bloodied body, “Your brother happens to share a very strong resemblance to him.”

In all honesty, it was a very strong resemblance, so strong that even Elijah nearly broke form when he first saw the boy. It was uncanny, but Elijah remained focused and made sure to keep well away from the boy as he constantly told himself that Jeremy was not Henrik. The task had been harder than Elijah had expected. He’d only had one slip up when he was feeling especially nostalgic and couldn’t resist the urge the sped to the Gilbert’s residence and stand in a dark corner of Jeremy’s room, watching the kid sleep - it didn’t help that when Jeremy mumbled in his sleep, it sounded like he was speaking a mix of Nordic and English, or the fact that when he inspected the teen’s room more, Elijah found many charcoal drawings of distorted and nightmarish pictures of wolves, the very beast in which Henrik had been killed by…

“So,” Elena started, tanned face growing paler by the second, “He thinks that Jeremy’s a doppelgänger?”

“No,” Elijah snapped, the harsh and sudden exclamation causing the girl to violently flinch. Elijah couldn’t bring himself to apologise as he silently brought his irrational anger under control. While Klaus was most definitely a monster when he wanted to be, he would never do anything to harm anything that reminded him of Henrik; it was one of the main reasons why Klaus never hunted children and killed off vampires that did. “Jeremy is under no danger from my brother, though I suspect that he would be most unwilling to let him go. If anything, Klaus may even convince himself that Jeremy is Henrik’s reincarnate.”

“Reincarnation’s a real thing?” Elena questioned, tone incredulous.

This time, Elijah allowed his lips to twitch slightly in amusement - humans had such closed minds, even when faced with evidence of the impossible, they still refused to believe.

“I’m surprised you have such a hard time believing in the concept, considering everything else,” Elijah rose an elegant eyebrow and the doppelgänger had the decency to wince at her slight oversight.

“So Klaus thinks that Jeremy is his dead brother?” Elena asked tone once again incredulous with an added head-tilt.

“If Jeremy is a true reincarnate, he could retain memories of his former life as Henrik, though they would be buried deep in his subconsciousness and it would be notoriously difficult to trigger them at all. That is added onto the fact that true reincarnations are extremely rear and often falsely confirmed or dismissed,” Elijah supplied and he honestly felt conflicted about if he wanted Jeremy to be a true reincarnation of Henrik or not. On one hand, Elijah missed his little brother terribly and would do just about anything to have the child back in his arm, safe and where he belonged. However, on the other hand, Henrik’s appearance could lead to complications that Elijah was never prepared for and he wasn’t sure if he could handle Henrik’s coming back from the dead after he spent centuries coming to terms with it…

“What does that mean for Jeremy?” Elena spoke up, interrupting his train of thought, “Is he in danger? What’s Klaus going to do to him?”

“Klaus would never kill Jeremy, but that is to say that he would be very unwilling to let him go, especially if he’s convinced himself that Jeremy is in fact, Henrik.” Elijah supplied, keeping his face clear as Elena’s face crumpled and her eyes started to grow shiny with unshed tears.

However, the doppelgänger seemed to catch herself just in time as she took a deep shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. There were a few minutes of silence as Elena attempted to gather herself and then looked at Elijah with new eyes - the original was polite enough to ignore the slight redness around her eyes that hadn’t quite left yet, “So, there’s a whole family of originals?” she changed the subject, obviously unable to carry on the conversation about her brother and his undetermined fate.

Honestly, Elijah didn’t understand why Elena was getting so worked up over Jeremy’s disappearance. Even when the original had first come to Mystic Falls to observe them all, it was clear that she tried to push Jeremy out of the loop on a constant basis. The group, in general, seemed to ignore the young teenager as they went about protecting Elena from anything and everything, leaving him alone with nothing but vervain to protect him at the worst of times. But, as much as Elijah wanted to, he kept his mouth shut. After all, it was none of his business about how Jeremy seemed to be treated by his sister, even if he did look like Henrik…

“Well, as I said, my mother bore seven children and my father was a wealthy landowner in a village in Eastern Europe…”

* * *

Damon felt like he could constantly roll his eyes as he leapt up the last steps of the apartment building that he was all too familiar with, dragging his latest toy with him as she complained, a nervousness in her voice that he could only feel partly guilty for.

"I don't think this is a good idea.”

“It’s investigative journalism…” Damon grinned at her in a half attempt to soothe any doubts she may have, he couldn’t have her running away, after all, he needed her to get in. for some reason, despite their budding bromance based around alcoholism and being forced to hang around teenagers, Alaric still hasn’t invited him into his place. “We’re investigating.”

Andie took a visibly deep breath, only hesitating slightly before she went ahead and gave a few loud knocks on the door before calling through the wooden barrier with a tentative and unsure voice, “Alaric, are you home? It’s Andie, er, Star. Jenna’s friend?” she said the last part like a question and Damon could see her wince from the corner of his eye before he concentrated his hearing on anything that was on the other side of the door.

He was hoping that both Jeremy and Katherine were trapped in Alaric’s place, hopefully, they both weren’t dead. While Damon generally didn’t care about the two - well he had an all-consuming hatred for Katherine, so he cared a little in that regard - he also didn’t want to return with Elena’s little brother’s dead body and her reaction to that. His ears were still ringing from when she shouted at him and Stefan about leaving Jeremy, injured, in a dark and isolated hallway… So, maybe that wasn’t one of Damon’s best moments, but it wasn’t his fault that Super Stefan had left the squirt there as well!

Either way, Damon was hoping to kill two birds with one stone.

Impatient, Damon pulled out the spare key he’d swiped off his friend and unlocked the door before gesturing for the uncertain journalist to push it open, which she did. As the dark wood slowly swung open, it revealed the miserable-looking Katherine Pierce standing just a few feet away.

“Thank God,” she stated, impatience in her tone as he stared at them

Andie was completely undeterred by the tone as she stepped over the premises and looked at Katherine with vague intrigue, "Wow! You were right. She looks exactly like Elena,” she stepped further into the apartment, though Katherine barely spared the woman a second glance before she turned to stare at Damon.

Testing his luck, Damon went to move forward and sighed in frustration when the invisible force prevented him from doing so, “Yep…” he answered Andie before he stepped back a little bit and concentrated his ice-blue eyes onto one of the missing people of the hour, "Thought you might be dead.”

Katherine tilted her chin up slightly and the fear in her eyes just went to show how terrified the vampire truly was, "Unfortunately not. What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to rescue you,” Andie supplied.

“No, sweetie,” Damon interrupted, smirking as he saw the vague shadow of hope die instantly upon his words, “We’re here to see if she deserves to be rescued and to rescue Jeremy if he’s here,” he corrected with a sweet smile before he fell away made make room for a serious one, “Is he here?”

Instantly, Katherine went to open her mouth, but no words came out.

“You can’t say…” Damon murmured in thought before he looked to Andie, “Sweetie, can you check around the place? Make sure no rooms have been locked?”

“Sure, honey,” Andie smiled before she went off to do exactly that.

"I figured you still might be kicking. Alaric-Klaus was blending way too easily. Figured he probably had some coaching,” Damon smirked before he pulled out the small bottle from his inside pocket, the clear liquid bringing a light of hope to the vampire’s dull eyes.

“Is that…”

“Vervain? Your salvation?” Damon shook the bottle.

“It won't undo anything.”

“There’s always a loophole. Did he tell you to do absolutely everything he says until the end of time?” he prompted.

“No,” she denied and seemed surprised that she was able to answer the question at all as she looked at Damon with no small amount of shock. She’d probably forgotten that he was actually considered smart under all his years and years of obsession and irrational actions.

“There’s your loophole. Drink this and it'll prevent any further compulsion,” he threw it at her and watched as she instantly yanked off the cork and downed the contents, pain scrunching her features as she coughed around the poison.

“Damon!” Andie suddenly called out and Damon’s hearing perked up with interest, “I think I found him! But I can’t even touch the handle. It’s like something’s there, stopping me!”

“Witches…” Damon hissed out, annoyance growing for the irritating species.

Then, there was a knocking on the door and Damon could only assume that Andie was trying to get the trapped occupant’s attention. “Jeremy? Are you in there?” she called out, just as she had before, “It’s Andie Star. I used to babysit you with Jenna when you were little!” Huh, he didn’t know that. Looked like one learnt something new every day.

“Andie?” another voice came from the distance, muffled from behind the door and Damon let out a small sigh of relief. At least he could tell Elena that her little bro was definitely alive, “Andie! You gotta help me get out of here! I can’t even go near the door!” he shouted, sounding panicked, “I think his witches did something!”

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious Baby Gilbert!” Damon called out, hopefully, he was loud enough for the kid to hear him.

There was a small pause and Damon could only assume the kid was crying with joy at the sound of his voice. “Damon! You’ve got to get me the fuck out of here! The guy’s insane!”

“My, my, such language for someone your age!” Damon mock gasped.

“I’m fifteen!” the kid reproached and Damon blinked at the age. He didn’t know why he felt so shocked at the kid’s age, but quickly dismissed the thought before anything ridiculous like lingering guilt for endangering someone so young could affect him. “I can fucking swear if I want! and you’d be swearing too if some vampire psycho told you that you're his long-dead baby brother and locked you in a room so the vervain can drain out of your system!” the kid shouted, sounding more and more hysterical until he was practically bellowing at them through the door. To be honest, Damon would be swearing as well in Jeremy’s case.

“Point taken,” the vampire murmured as he shared a look with Katherine, before he raised his voice for Jeremy again, “Can you get to the door?” he asked.

Katherine tried to reply, but no answer came - another compulsion by the vampire of the century - but Damon couldn’t withhold the small surprised eyebrow raise when she managed to shake her head. With that answered, there was now the predicament that Damon was in. He’d found Jeremy, but couldn’t get him out of the locked room, a combination of Witch voodoo and vampire rules. There was also the case of Damon only having had one phial of vervain, in which he’d given to Katherine, and even if he did have another one, there was the question of how he was supposed to give it to the teen through a solid door. There was nothing more than Damon could do and while he would usually just turn around and leave the kid to it, Damon couldn’t shake the feeling that if he left the kid, now, he wasn’t going to be seeing him any time soon…

“Just leave!” Jeremy suddenly called out, startling Damon from his thoughts, “Klaus or one of his lackeys might be back at any minute! You can’t do anything for me anyways…” the last part was mumbled, probably not intended for Damon to hear, but the truth of the statement still stung a bit. “Just…” there was a moment of hesitation on Jeremy’s part like he wasn’t sure what he wanted to say or didn’t know if he wanted to say it. “Bonnie… Is she okay?”

There was a moment of silence and Damon could tell that the teenager was holding his breath, silently praying for Bonnie to be safe, “Bonnie’s fine,” Damon called out, just loud enough for Jeremy to here, before he sighed and turned away from the open door, “Andie! Come on, let’s go!” he called out and the vampire heard a soft murmur of reassurance and ‘goodbye’ from his girlfriend before the sound of her heeled footsteps got closer and closer until she revealed herself from around the corner. Turning to Katherine, he gave her a half glare as he stated, "You owe me. And I will collect,” before he turned away from the apartment and started walking down the stairs.

Andie only lingered enough to say a small, polite farewell to the vampire bitch, before she caught up to him and instantly wrapped her arm around his waist, while he curled his own arm around her shoulders, the position relaxed and carefree in opposition to his rapid and stressful thoughts. “We really just going to leave him?” Andie questioned, looking slightly guilty as she peeked behind her shoulder as if she could get a parting glance from Jeremy.

“There’s nothing more we can do…”

* * *

Jeremy did nothing more than lay on the bed, bored out of his mind…

He’d spent the entire day in one room, trapped and alone with very little to entertain him. If the anticipation and fear of Klaus didn’t kill him, then the boredom surely would. After Jeremy had finally calmed down from having the door locked and suddenly being unable to get near the door-handle (magic), he’d taken to attempting to find alternate escape routes or at least something to contact the others. Jeremy practically flipped the room upside down.

He tried to force open the window, which was apparently nailed or superglued or spelled to the window-seel, and when he tried to smash it with his elbow, he’s simply bounced off of the force-field that had suddenly shimmered to life. After that failure, Jeremy had scoured the wall, pressing down and brushing his fingers over every small ridge and bare brick in an attempt to find some sort of hidden escape route. It was unlikely, but Jeremy was desperate and it wasn’t like he had loads to do. However, predictably, there were no hidden doors discovered.

Knowing a lost cause when he saw one, Jeremy designated his time in not being bored, but no matter what draw Jeremy couldn’t seem to find anything of entertainment - he couldn’t even find a damn book! It was only when Jeremy was muttering curses at how his life was turning out when he accidentally knocked his knuckles against the bottom of the chest he was searching through and paused. It sounded odd and Jeremy frowned in confusion as he tried to think of why such a sound had caught his attention so much. Knocking again, Jeremy decided to follow his instincts and felt along the edges of the wooden bottom, eyes widening with mild surprise when he felt a small catch. A false bottom. Grinning, Jeremy ripped open the false bottom of the deep chest and searched through his newly discovered treasure. His grin widened when he pulled out a crossbow, a few bolts to go with it and a few sharpened stakes.

After that, Jeremy had spent the next hour or so practicing his aim on the door, until it was riddled with holes. Alaric would have to get a new door for his guest bedroom. Jeremy knew that the man would probably rip him a new one when he found out what Jeremy had done to his room and his door, but the teen was finding it very hard to care at the moment.

However, all too soon, Jeremy quickly got bored once again. Never before had he wished to have his school books so he could study and do some homework…

Then, activity started outside of his room, loud music distant but still rattling his door with the force of it. He’d tried to yell for attention, but quickly gave up when he realised that it was probably one of Klaus’ henchmen and he was wasting his time in shouting at them. Not ten minutes later, the music stopped and Jeremy stared at the door, wishing that he could see or hear what was happening in the rest of the house. However, he was soon nearly jumping for joy and brimming with hope when he heard a feminine voice on the other end of the door and recognised it to be one of Jenna’s friends, Andie the news lady, and he was even more thrilled when he realised that Damon was there as well. While Damon would never be his favourite vampire that lurked around his sister (not after he killed Vicki and force Jeremy to forget) he was relieved to hear such familiar voices once again.

But that euphoria and hope of escape was soon sapped from Jeremy when they explained that they couldn’t get to him. Tears stung his eyes when they told him the Andie couldn’t touch the door and Damon couldn’t set foot in the apartment and his hands trembled when they told him that they needed to leave before Klaus came back and killed them all. Jeremy had passed on his acceptance and revelled in the fact that he knew that Bonnie was alive and well which made his heart feel a little less painful, but he couldn’t stop the dull throbbing in his chest when their voices floated away, a sound which Jeremy could only guess was the front door closing behind them. He tried to ignore the feeling. He tried to tell himself that they had no choice, that they would be back for him when they could, that they would never leave him there to die at the mercy of Klaus, not unless they had no choice. But Jeremy just couldn’t stop the sting of rejection and the ache of abandonment that seemed to be trying to crack open his soul.

Now, all he was doing was laying on the bed, keeping his mind as blank as he possibly could as he tried to avoid freaking himself out again. When you were involved in the supernatural, you couldn’t afford to be frantic and freak out because that only got you killed instantly; the best route was to always be level-headed and as calm as possible. Staring at the ceiling, Jeremy wasn’t really aware of his surroundings or what was happening in the outside world, but he was suddenly all too aware when Klaus came back.

The constant low thrum of music was suddenly cut off and Jeremy could hear a loud smash of glass shattering against a wall. Jeremy was up and off of the bed within a matter of seconds, snatching up the crossbow and started to expertly load it as he hovered in the corner, eyeing the door like it was a monster preparing to attack. Several minutes passed, but Jeremy didn’t dare relax, knowing full well that Klaus could come into the room at any moment and Jeremy couldn’t do a damn thing to prevent it, but he could damn well try…

Then the door made a sound and Jeremy tensed impossibly further as he listened to the click of the lock and the slow, dreaded turn of the handle. Hefting up the crossbow, Jeremy didn’t hesitate to squeeze the trigger when a man appeared by the door, the arrow heading straight for the man’s heart and it would have struck true if the man hadn’t possessed the reflex to catch the damn thing mid-flight.

Jeremy pursed his lips in mild displeasure, eyes narrowed in a heated glare as he observed the vampire. He had an air of displeasure but not one of surprise as his piercing blue eyes stared at the small arrow before throwing it to the side, eyes landing on Jeremy with an intensity that made the teen’s blood freeze in his very veins. Every inch of the vampire’s frame, every minuscule movement was filled with confidence and power that Jeremy would never be able to completely comprehend and it made Jeremy shudder at having to face such power - a mindless prey looking into the eyes of an intelligent predator.

“Nice shot, brother,” the vampire finally spoke - accent crisp and British and sounding so old - after several tense seconds of silence as he casually threw the arrow to the side, never taking his eyes off Jeremy as he gave a lazy sort of smile, “Just not fast enough.”

“What do you want?” Jeremy demanded in a hard tone, glare still in place as he gripped the crossbow tighter against him, despite the fact that it wasn’t loaded and wouldn’t do him any good.

The vampire tusked, stepping further into the room with lazy strides, making his way closer towards Jeremy, who couldn’t quite hide his fear as his hands gave a small tremble. “Can’t I visit my baby brother?” he questioned with a hint of teasing, full lips quirking up in the corner. Then, when he was but a few feet in front of Jeremy, paying no mind at all to the crossbow pointed at his chest, he stopped and regarded Jeremy with serious eyes, “Recognise me?”

Jeremy took a moment to sweep his eyes over the vampire, analysing the monster as slowly as he dared, noting the fact that the vampire was just as tall as Jeremy, chest wide with muscled arms, but not overly so, with a strong jaw that was covered in a light stubble, lips full and red, with a small nose and bright blue eyes which were overshadowed by his dark blonde eyebrows. His hair gave Jeremy a moment of pause, taking in the short strands and the dark blonde colouring, making Jeremy’s eyebrows twitch down slightly in mild confusion as the teen couldn’t shake the feeling that the man’s hair was supposed to be longer, but quickly pushed the odd idea away.

“No,” Jeremy stated in a controlled tone.

In response, Klaus narrowed his eyes even further and before Jeremy knew what was happening, his crossbow was thrown and broken on impact as it made contact with the opposite wall and a hand was clamped around Jeremy’s jaw, forcing the teen to stare into the vampire’s eyes as his body was shoved against the wall. Breath coming out raggedly through his nose, Jeremy felt his hands twitch up to grab at Klaus’ wrist before he forced them to his sides, not wanting to touch the vampire any more than he had to. Suddenly, Klaus leaned in close and Jeremy practically stopped breathing as he stared at blue eyes that had tainted darker, red slowly clouding the whites as he stared deeply into Jeremy’s doe brown, as he murmured threateningly, “Do not lie to be, brother, you will not like the consequences… Now, let’s try this again,” he leaned a little bit away, so Jeremy could look at the vampire’s whole face, “Do. You. Recognise. Me?”

Again, Jeremy tried to deny and shake his head, but stopped and couldn’t quite hide his wince of pain when Klaus dug hid nails into the vulnerable flesh of Jeremy’s jaw. Opening his mouth, Jeremy released a shuddering breath as he tried to explain, voice shamefully weak as he stared fearfully at the deranged original, “I- No. It- It’s the hair!” he managed to choke out and made a small sigh of relief when the vampire eased up the grip on his jaw.

“What about my hair?” Klaus prompted in a small murmur as he stared at Jeremy like he was the only thing in the world.

Jeremy hesitated for another moment before he gave his reluctant answer, “It should be… longer…” Jeremy sighed as he looked at the short stands and let his eyes track down before he settled on the vampire’s shoulder, “To around your shoulders…” then Jeremy blinked and wished the vampire wasn’t so close to him so he could rub a tired hand down his face, “I don’t know-“ Jeremy started but choked himself off when Klaus’ hand moved from his jaw to cup the back of his neck, fingers gently tangling in the dark hair as he moved Jeremy forward. Before the teen to do anything to fight against the hold, Klaus’ forehead gently connected with his own, piercing blue eyes hidden beneath closed eyelids, the vampire’s face a picture of peace and serenity as if he was basking in Jeremy’s presence. Jeremy couldn’t help but lean into the touch a little at the gentle and oddly intimate contact - it had been a long time since someone, other than Bonnie, had touched him so gently and lovingly - but he refused to close his eyes as he stared at the original before him, a hint of fear and wariness keeping him from relaxing completely.

It felt like forever before Klaus finally released a long and deep sigh, and moved back, lowly retracting his hands from Jeremy like he was very reluctant to let go. Then, the vampire righted himself and started to retreat from the room, “I’ll be back later, baby brother,” he then looked over his shoulder and smirked at Jeremy, “The sacrifice happens tonight.”

As soon as Jeremy registered what Klaus had said, panic and anger shot through him like a live wire and was running towards the door before he was even conscious of his movement. However, Jeremy was too late as the vampire stepped out of the room and shut the door in the teen’s face, but that didn’t stop Jeremy from pounding on the door and shouting, begging for the vampire to leave his sister alone, to not kill her and take her away from him as he tried and failed to touch the door handle once again.

It was a while before Jeremy calmed down again, tears and anger rushing through him like it hadn’t done since the night he was informed of his parents’ deaths. All too soon, exhaustion made itself known as his emotional tidal waves began to retreat and he could do nothing more than quietly sob on the bed until he finally fell asleep, trapped, helpless and alone once again…

* * *

Hours ticked by unnoticed by Jeremy as he slept. He slept heavily through the commotion of Damon and Alaric coming back home, the pair attempting to call to Jeremy through the door before Katherine told them that the kid was asleep after ‘his little tantrum’. He slept through Klaus returning home and opening the door to check on him, only to silently retreat when he discovered Jeremy’s unconscious state, a smirk quirking at his lips before he rounded on Katherine and then Damon when the vampire tried to rub his false victory in Klaus’ face. He slept through, well into the night unaware that his sister and aunt were being sacrificed and that his uncle had traded his own life for Elena’s.

Jeremy only jolted awake when a wolf’s howl sounded off from a distance, the noise electing momentary instinctual fear before he pushed it away, shook his head and rubbed the sleep from his eyes before he winced at the dull pain in his head - a pain he was all too familiar with when he cried himself to sleep. He didn’t know why the thought of werewolves scared him more than the thought of vampires, but the only thing Jeremy could do was shake it off and keep as far away from Tyler as possible. Sighing and looking around at the darkness, Jeremy finally hefted himself off of the bed and walked towards the door once again, ignoring his heavily crinkled shirt and trousers which he’d still not changed from since the night of the decade dance. The task was practically pointless, Jeremy knew that he wasn’t going to be able to even touch the damn door handle, but he just had to check…

Warm flesh made contact with chilled metal and Jeremy flinched back and held his hand at the unexpectedness of it as if it had injured him. Blinking with disbelief, Jeremy touched the handle again and could barely contain his laugh of joy as he could feel the metal again, but as he went to pull it down, he felt a rush of near-crippling helplessness as all the hope that had surged in him was drained in a matter of seconds.

It was locked. The door was locked. Even with Jeremy being able to touch the handle, he was still locked and trapped inside. There was no way that- “Oh…” Jeremy murmured to himself, realisation hitting him with a force that left him blinking stupidly and then rolling his eyes at himself for being so dumb…

Within a matter of seconds, Jeremy was throwing his entire weight against the door as he kicked it, once, twice- and then fell on the floor when the old hinges couldn’t take the attack anymore. At least he was out of that damn room, though.

Scraping himself off the floor and dusting himself off, Jeremy finally looked around and blinked when he saw Elena standing in the kitchen. Had she been here this whole time? Jeremy shook his head at the question, elation running through him at the knowledge that his sister was safe, that his sister wasn’t dead, that Jeremy could still save her. Happiness thrumming through him, Jeremy smiled and stepped forward to hug Elena, who still had yet to move or speak, when he froze, smile faltering as he gazed at his sister. It took Jeremy another second to blink and notice that Elena didn’t seem ‘right’: her clothes were not the usual layers with long-comfortable sleeves; her hair was wavy and curled opposed to her usual straight; what was most telling were her eyes, the same innocent brown that he was familiar with, but, at the same time, they seemed ancient and haunted. Katherine.

“Katherine,” Jeremy stated the name bluntly without really meaning to speak out loud in the first place.

The vampire blinked as well, minutely shocked before her usual conniving smirk was fixed to her lips once again, “I don’t think anyone’s ever told me apart from Elena so fast. Bravo, Jeremy,” she did small sarcastic clap.

Ignoring the vampire, for the most part, Jeremy did a quick look around the apartment, shoulders relaxing ever so slightly at the confirmation that Klaus wasn’t lurking about anywhere. Once the prospect of freedom really hit Jeremy, the teen wasted no time in rushing towards the door. He needed to help Elena, he needed to help Bonnie and he couldn’t do that from Alaric’s home. However, he only managed a handful of steps before Katherine sped in front of him, blocking his way.

“Get out of the way, Katherine,” Jeremy practically growled at her as he stared her down with as much hate he could manage. He didn’t know why the vampire wasn’t dead, or why she wasn’t attacking and drinking from him (though, there was a possibility that Klaus had compelled her not to harm him), but he didn’t care. He needed to get to his sister.

“You’re too late,” Katherine spoke up, just as Jeremy moved around her, making him freeze, “The moon’s already come passed its apex, the sacrifice is over. Elena and your little Aunt Jenna are dead.”

Pain, like never before, seemed to rip at Jeremy’s heart like a rabid beast. It was a kind of pain that nearly brought Jeremy to his knees, crippling helplessness and sorrow coming down upon him like an avalanche of emotions. Elena was dead. His sister, who he’d worked so hard to protect and keep happy, was dead. It almost didn’t seem real, like he was trapped in some twisted lucid dream that he had absolutely no control over. Aunt Jenna. Did she just say that Jenna was also dead? No. No. This couldn’t be happening. This wasn’t real!

“I don’t believe you…” Jeremy managed to choke out around the pain of his emotions, without sounding like he was truly dying inside. He turned to face her, swinging around to bare his teeth at the ancient bitch, uncaring that she could see the tears brimming in his eyes, “You’re wrong!”

“Believe what you want,” Katherine dismissed easily as she turned away and sashayed herself towards the kitchen, “But that doesn’t mean I lied.”

Jeremy didn’t know what to say to that. He was alone (with Katherine, but that didn’t count), upset, panicked and very hungry. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to curl up on his bed, turn his music up to its highest volume and cry his pain-riddled heart out. He couldn’t handle this any more. Without thinking much more than the word ‘home’, Jeremy ignored the feel of Katherine’s eyes following him out the door, nearly tripped and fell down an entire flight of stairs in his haste to distance himself from the apartment, before he stumbled out onto the street. Jeremy paused as he looked around, taking in the darkness and complete lack of people before looking up at the silver light of that accursed full moon that had always unnerved him, ever since he was a small child…

Taking in a shuddering breath in an attempt to calm himself down, before he turned in the direction of home, familiar with the route back to his home from Alaric’s place, and started running. Jeremy ran like the hounds of hell were on his heels, pumping his legs and letting the sound of his panting breath and the slam of his feet hitting the night-chilled pavement fill his ears with a running mantra of ‘home’ playing in his mind. By the time Jeremy got to the halfway point, at across the road from the graveyard, the teen was cursing the fact that Alaric lived on the opposite side of town from, literally everyone else in their little ‘supernatural club'.

On the second to last corner from his home, Jeremy let a small smile of relief bloom over his face. Home. He was almost home. He was almost there-

Jeremy's world suddenly cut off and the next thing he knew he was blinking dazedly from the cool ground. What happened…

One moment he was running, pushing himself to go faster, the next he felt like he’d been hit by a truck as he was taken off of his feet and thrown to the ground, whacking his head on the ground in the process. He winced when pain shot up his arm, the small loose stones of the concrete digging in and scraping away at his delicate skin until blood was flowing down his arm and he couldn’t really think straight as he tried to sit up, but something heavy pressed him down. What…

Blinking the dizziness from his eyes, Jeremy managed to finally look up at the weight that was pressing him down and nearly couldn’t suppress a scream in time when he could see a giant wolf peering down at him, eyes glinting maliciously in the low light of the dreaded full moon. Before Jeremy could think of anything more to do than freeze up with fear, the wolf rushed forward, mouth open and Jeremy was sure that this was how he was going to die… Only to find himself being tugged from the back of his shirt collar and bodily dragged across the road towards the surrounding woods that the wolf had obviously come from.

The wolf was obviously a werewolf and it was either a werewolf that preferred to drag its prey back to its territory and then eat, or the group had failed to stop the sacrifice like Katherine had said, and this was Klaus in his wolf form trying to drag Jeremy back to his prison or kill him. Either way, those thoughts were terrifying and Jeremy instantly started to struggle and shout.

“Let go!” he demanded, twisting his arms back to try and get the wolf to release him, despite knowing that his efforts were in vain. From the angle his arms were, he would never be able to gain enough strength or a proper grip to struggle free and even if he could fight off a werewolf, who had enough strength to take down a vampire, his escape would only be momentary as the wolf would just grab him again.

The wolf wasted no time in dragged Jeremy further into the woods, uncaring of the teen’s shouts of abuse and demands and the hits to his muzzle, which probably felt like nothing more than kitten-taps.

By the time they stopped, Jeremy was extremely tired. His voice was hoarse from shouting, his legs hurt from running so long and from being dragged through the woods, hitting forest debris like fallen sticks and large stones along the way. This day was just the worst. And, to add on top of that, he still hadn’t eaten or drank anything… When they came to an abrupt stop, Jeremy had a little hope that he might be able to get away - just choose a direction and run as fast as he could. But his half-assed plan was fraughted when the wolf practically laid on top of him, the sudden and heavy weight making Jeremy lose all the air in his lungs. Once Jeremy had settled down again, completely still and rigid from his fear, but not completely terrified with the knowledge that Klaus didn’t seem intent on killing him at the moment, he allowed himself to relax marginally when it was clear that the giant, furry body on top of him wasn’t keen on going anywhere any time soon.

Annoyed and barely managing to get his breath back with so much weight on his chest, Jeremy tried to make himself stop trembling as he fisted his hands into the massive wolf’s sides and tried to physically list the beast off of him. As a result, Jeremy was left panting and exhausted as he let his hands fall uselessly to the ground, his energy completely sapped from him. It didn’t really help mattered when the wolf was looking at him and Jeremy couldn’t help but feel that Klaus was amused at his failed efforts.

Glaring for a few seconds, Jeremy decided to give up completely as he let his head fall with a muttered, “It’s not my fault you're fat…” which the werewolf obviously heard as he gave a small offended growl, which had Jeremy seizing up again, before he placed his muzzle in his captor’s neck so that his cold nose was pocking the teen’s sensitive flesh, making him yelp and squirm.

“I would cease your resistance, Jeremy,” a posh and cultured voice suddenly announced from out of Jeremy’s view, “I don’t believe that Niklaus is going to be moving any time soon and when he comes out of his transformation, he will not be too pleased with your attempted escape.” Upon that last word, the man (vampire) suddenly came into Jeremy’s sight, standing above his head, deep brown eyes looking down into Jeremy’s own from above and, to the teen’s surprise, he recognised him. Honestly, Jeremy didn’t have any kind of contact with Elijah when the man first came into town, or even when everything was going down and Alaric stabbed him. But, what was he doing here? How did he escape the Salvatore’s basement? Why was he here now? What was going on?

“I can see you have many questions,” the vampire spoke before Jeremy to even attempt to organise his scrambled thoughts, a minuscule smile quirking one corner of his lips, as he slowly crouched down, absently sweeping his suit jacket out of the way in the process, “But they are for another time after my brother changes back.”

“What-“ Jeremy barely managed to gasp out, eyes wide and shocked as his mind focused on one word: ‘brother’. This guy was Klaus’ brother?

“Go to sleep,” the vampire demanded, large, dangerous hand nearly tickling the teen’s forehead as he brushed a few strands of unkempt hair from Jeremy’s eyes. The teen could barely even spare a panicked thought that the vervain in his system had finally flushed out before his eyes were closing and the oblivion of sleep soon followed after...

* * *

When Jeremy woke up, he kept his eyes closed as memories of the past day filtered through his mind’s eye. He knew where he was - the loud tweeting of morning birds and the rough texture of dried leaves on his face told him enough - and the lack of near-crushing weight on his chest told him that Klaus was no longer on top of him. So that pegged the question: where were they?

Slowly, cautiously, opening his eyes, Jeremy looked around and took in the morning sunshine, the fallen dried leaves and twigs with a few flowers that sprung in odd patched across the ground. He looked around some more. No one. They weren’t anywhere in sight? Did they leave him? Did they just let him go? Shaking off the questions, Jeremy chose not to look a gift horse in the mouth and started to run, following the vague tracks in the dirt, which had obviously been from where Klaus had dragged Jeremy through the forest.

“Where do you think you're going?” a voice called out and Jeremy nearly stumbled in his haste to stop when there were very suddenly, to powerful vampires in front of him, staring at him, one staring with an expression of vague indifference with something unreadable in his eyes while the other looked far from impressed. In fact, Jeremy was very surprised that Klaus wasn’t trying to rip him apart limb from limb at this very moment.

“Morning run?” Jeremy supplied, his sleep-addled mind unable to filter his words in time.

By the look of Klaus’ darkening expression, dismemberment might be an easier way to go…


	3. From bad to worse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait!  
> I was kind of stopping and starting this chapter for the past month or so and whenever I really wanted to write, I was near-delerious with lack of sleep…  
> Hope this is okay. I don’t think it’s very well edited as I usually use Grammarly, but I couldn’t access it so I used an alternate site that I don’t like. I’ll have to come back to this at a later date and read through it, so if you spot any mistakes, that’s why.  
> Thanks for your patience!!

Jeremy honestly felt like crying.

He was confused, hungry, alone, tired and with two very, very dangerous creatures. If Jeremy were to guess, the only reason why he wasn’t collapsing on the floor and sobbing his heart out was because there were far too many emotions for him to process. He was vibrating with anger, frozen by fear, dizzy with confusion and steady with adrenaline. Too much adrenaline. It felt like he was going to combust with these warring emotions, all of them weathering and beating against his desperate thoughts to keep calm and find some way of escape.

“Come along, Henrik,” Klaus practically hissed as he tugged harshly on the sleeve of the teen’s arm, nearly causing Jeremy to stumble and fall once again, hands trembling with the sudden spike of his fear.

“Is that really necessary, Niklaus?” Elijah commended as he walked beside Jeremy, frowning at Klaus’ back in clear disapproval of his treatment of their newly discovered little brother. Jeremy glanced at Elijah from the corner of his eye, only to startle and train his eyes forward when he accidentally made eye contact. While Elijah seemed to be the lesser of the two evils, he was still an original vampire and he’d still compelled Jeremy with absolutely no qualms. Elijah was dangerous and Jeremy wouldn’t be making the same mistake as his sister in trusting him…

“Yes,” the hybrid glared back at the vampire, blue eyes flashing with anger, “He should know better than to run around at night on a full moon!” he transferred his glare to Jeremy, who flinched. Honestly, Jeremy didn’t know if he was more afraid of the implications of the full moon and other werewolves killing him, or of Klaus and his blue inferno of a glare. “What were you thinking?!” he growled at the teen, practically spitting venom as they all came to a stand-still in the middle of the woods.

It took Jeremy a bit too long to figure out that the hybrid was actually waiting for an answer, his stare furious and expectant. Anger and frustration suddenly reared its head and Jeremy was suddenly talking without even realising it, the use of compulsion completely unnecessary. “Maybe I wouldn’t try to run away if you thought to give me some food and water or didn’t lock me in a room with nothing to do!” Jeremy had started in a low hissing voice, but it had gotten stronger and louder the longer he went on his preservation instinct taking a momentary break as he glared at the perpetrator.

Klaus looked like he was about to snap, teeth bared and dark veins peaking from beneath his skin and Jeremy was ready to gear himself up for a screaming match (he’d had so many with his sister these days that it was almost second nature) when a loud growling sound pierced the air. At the loud sound, Jeremy couldn’t help but duck his head, face turning beet-red in embarrassment despite the fact that his stomach had just proven his point.

“I think,” Elijah started slowly as he stepped between the teen and the hybrid, prying Klaus’ vice-like fingers from Jeremy’s sleeve so he could take a more gentle grip on his reincarnated little brother’s arm, “That we should get back to… wherever it is you’ve hold up in this time and order something for Jeremy to eat. Yes?” he questioned the pair and Jeremy wanted to know how the vampire had made it sound like a suggestion without it being one at the same time.

“No!” Jeremy exclaimed, pulling on his arm as he tried to get away from Elijah in vain, “Just let me go home!”

“While I’m sure that you want to go back to your empty little house,” Klaus glared with hard eyes and Jeremy tried to ignore the deep and painful pang in his chest at the reminder that he had no one left, “I don’t really think you have much of a choice at the moment,” the hybrid hinted tauntingly and Jeremy only glared harder when he spotted a cruel smirk curling the man’s lips, “Better choose wisely, Henrik.”

“My name is not Henrik!” Jeremy practically bellowed, rage and grief finally bursting out of him like a broken dam and without thought or hesitation, Jeremy tried to throw himself at the damn hybrid, aiming to punch and kick. However, before he could land a single blow, Jeremy suddenly felt an arm wrap around his chest, his feet lifting and ground as he was spun away with a dizzying speed. The next thing Jeremy knew, he was held in the cage of Elijah’s arms and Klaus was suddenly over ten meters away from where Jeremy wanted him and so he struggled and shouted, fire and murder in his eyes as he spat profanities at the hybrid, uncaring if they’d get him killed.

“Henrik,” Elijah tried to interrupt, hands gripped tightly around Jeremy’s wrists like a pair of shackles to stop the teen from punching him, though Jeremy refused to stop his struggles and shouting as he twisted his head to avoid the vampire’s compelling stare, “Henrik, stop!”

“I’m not Henrik!” Jeremy bellowed once more, brown eyes meeting brown eyes and Jeremy banished the peeking thought that Elijah’s orbs looked so much like his own. Silence seemed to hang in the air for a split second before Jeremy felt his face crumpling, senseless rage and anger giving way to grief, confusion and fear. Before Jeremy was even aware of it, both him and Elijah were sitting on the forest floor, the elder having gathered the teen against his chest as Jeremy sobbed his heart out, heaving sobs making it hard to breath as he tried to smother his face into the vampire’s chest, clutching the suit lapels like a life-line as he felt a large hand gently carding through his hair. Jeremy was desperate and scared enough to pretend that the hand was his dead father’s and not a vicious vampire who could kill him in a second.

Slowly, the gentle hand made its way to his chin, lifting it up and gently wiping a thumb over the teen’s tear-soaked cheek and Jeremy barely caught a murmur of words before exhaustion came crashing over him like a tidal wave and the teen wasn’t even able to whine in protest before darkness took him, causing him to slump forwards into the ancient vampire’s embrace.

“Was that really necessary?” Elijah asked as he hefted Jeremy into his arms with ease, sparing a look of disapproval at Klaus.

Klaus rose his eyebrows at the older vampire with mock-surprise, though not before there was a flash of something dark and unreadable in his eyes at he stared at Jeremy in Elijah’s arms, “Yes,” he rolled his eyes and started to walk out of the forest again, “It would do him well to remember his past life with us and to remind him of it at every opportunity. You don’t know what may trigger him into finally unlocking his memories.”

“Did you ever think of the possibility that he may never remember being Henrik?” Elijah interjected with a slight glare as he subconsciously held Jeremy’s unconscious form a little tighter, “Or that actively forcing him to remember could cause him harm?” Elijah pressed further, tightening his grip even further and only easing up when he heard a slight moan of protest from his human brother, “Did you ever think of Jeremy’s best interests? Henrik was human and he showed very little potential in growing into a warlock. He would have lived a normal, human life - if he’d lived a complete life. Maybe Jeremy-“

“His name is not Jeremy!” Klaus suddenly spat as he spun around and stalked back to his trailing brother, squaring off to him as he glared daggers at emotionless brown orbs, “This is Henrik! He is our brother! His life would have been with his family a thousand years ago and he is still belong to this family now! He is ours! Our little brother! And he is one I will not forsake a second time! So don’t to dare suggest to me that we leave him here to have a 'normal life’!”

“This is not about you,” Elijah spat back, still maintaining his ever persistent calm, even in the face of his most fearsome sibling, “This is about Jeremy and what is best for him. I don’t believe that actively trying to cut out the life that he spent as ‘Jeremy’ is a commendable idea. He has a life here. A family. You can’t compel that away from him.”

At this, Klaus scoffed as he stepped away from his brother and swung out his arms in a grand gesture, “What life, Elijah? What family?” he let his arms fall to his sides, “He has no one left in this godforsaken pit of a town. What will he go back to? An empty home? Halls filled with ghosts of memories passed? Why forsake him to that isolated suffering when he could have us as his willing family? A family that would never forget about him. A family that would care and cherish him far more than the doppelgänger and her little club ever did,” he paused to let his statement sink in, his silver-tongue coming to play more than it had in years, “This is Henrik, Elijah, no matter what name or memories he goes by, now.”

There was a long silence in the clearing as the brother’s stared at one another before Elijah finally sighed and adjusted Jeremy so that his head rested more comfortably on Elijah’s shoulder. “I don’t think this is a discussion to have out in the open, brother,” he gestured politely in the direction they’d been moving in, “Shall we?”

Klaus said nothing as he gave a small nod of agreement and then sped out, easily manoeuvring around the sparsely populated trees. Elijah quickly followed suit, easily keeping up, even with the added load of Jeremy. In a matter of seconds, Klaus and Elijah had arrived in the apartment building of the local vampire hunter, both slowly as they arrived at the stairs. Instantly, both of them knew what was waiting for them upstairs. After all, neither Katerina nor Stefan Salvatore were making much of an effort to keep their voices down or remain weary of their surroundings.

With an eye roll of how stupid modern vampires seemed to be, the brothers sped up the stairs before slowing to casually walk in, startling both the vampires into immediate silence. Klaus didn’t bother to hide his smirk as he caught the looks of dark rage and hatred that seemed to dance in both Katerina and Stefan’s eyes, like demonic silhouettes dancing behind the screen of light, their anger was right on the surface, ready to burst out at a moment’s notice. The hybrid particularly enjoyed the slight widening of Stefan’s eyes when he saw Elijah walk into the room with Jeremy in his arms.

“Jeremy-“

“Ah, ah, ah,” Klaus clicked his tongue mockingly as he watched Elijah gently place their brother on the sofa, “Not so fast, Stefan.”

“What are you doing with Jeremy?” Stefan demanded, jaw clenching with the rush of fear and anger flowing through his system.

“That,” Klaus enunciated for the young vampire, “Is none of your concern? Now, I suggest you explain why you’re here before my patience runs out,” there was a moment of silence and Klaus could practically see the vampire’s thoughts turning and churning as his hazel eyes flickered to Jeremy and then Klaus, internally weighing and debating which cause was more important: his original purpose, or the little brother his his dead girlfriend. “Tick tock, Salvatore,” Klaus cautioned, which seemed to make up Stefan’s mind as he dragged his eyes away from Jeremy and settled them firmly on Klaus.

“I need your help… For my brother,” he asked, tone stiff and unpleasant in the face of having to beg his enemy for anything.

"Well, whatever it is, it's gonna have to wait a tick,” he patted Elijah on the shoulder before he squeezed it, as if he was relishing the shadow of their former companionship, "You see, I have an obligation to my brother that requires my immediate attention,” he smirked at Stefan at the end, which made it all the more harder for the younger not to snap and try to rip the damn hybrid’s head off.

Then Elijah spoke up, his tone so chilling that it swiftly snapped Stefan out of his irrational and death-sentancing wants, "You understand how important family is, or you wouldn't be here,” he stepped forward as to neatly dislodge Klaus’s hand from him, "My brother gave me his word that he would reunite me with my own,” he gave a look to Jeremy, the stare lingering a little bit too long, “And then we will all leave this godforsaken town,” he sniffed with displeasure.

For a horror-filled second of realisation, Stefan knew that Elijah was planning to leave with his family once he’d gotten them and there was no doubt in his mind that Jeremy would be taken with him. Elijah was going to take Jeremy away. Away from his home town, away from his school, and away from his very much alive sister, who was worried sick with his absence.

“And so I shall.” Suddenly, Klaus lunged forward, hitting Elijah in the chest and for a second, everything seemed to freeze as Stefan watched with fear and confusion. It was only clear that Klaus had stabbed his own brother with the dagger when Elijah gave a pained groan and his skin started to grey. Then, the hybrid leaned forward, whispering into Elijah’s ear as he stated, “Henrik will never be yours to take. Sleep well, brother,” and then Klaus stepped back, letting Elijah fall to the ground, dead. Slowly with a smirk still stretching his lips, Klaus turned to face Stefan, "Now, what am I gonna do with you?”

* * *

It was concerning how Jeremy was beginning to tell the difference from waking up after falling asleep and waking up after being compelled to sleep. Waking up from a natural, restful sleep was more slow, as is he was transitioning into the waking world bit by bit as to not make it too jarring for him when he finally came back to reality. When he was compelled and forced to sleep for a time, he hovered for a small time, on the cusp of being completely awake and falling back to sleep, as if the compulsion hadn’t quite worn off yet, and then reality hit him hard and fast, making Jeremy jolt up and gasp for breath, the sensation of falling in his chest and stomach.

Instantly knowing that he was in danger, Jeremy sat up, scrambling off the sofa he didn’t remember lying on as he unseeingly glanced about him with wide, frightened eyes.

“Ah, Henrik,” a voice interrupted his panic, making Jeremy still and blink before he finally came back to reality, clearing him of the film of instinctual panic. However, the realty was so much worse and the toxic mixture of fear and panic seized his heart once again. “So nice of you to be finally awake,” Klaus carried on, as if Jeremy wasn’t clearly trembling at the very sight of him.

Jeremy then frowned in confusion as he looked about Alaric’s apartment. Klaus was in the kitchen, leaning leisurely against the counter, that annoyingly permanent smirk still on his lips as he gazed at Jeremy with piercing eyes that routed the human to the spot, but Klaus’ presence wasn’t the thing that confused Jeremy. What confused the teenager was the fact that Stefan was with him…

“Stefan?” Jeremy questioned as if doubting that the vampire was really there.

But Stefan didn’t say anything, just continuing to weakly hang his head, red staining the tips of his fingers, roping up his arms, and practically dripping from his face. The vampire was panting, his chest heaving for breath as if he was starved of oxygen, his hands trembling violently, as if he was loosing control and was barely grasping them with stiff fingers. He looked ill and as Stefan looked back at Jeremy, eyes dark and red with want and hunger. Like he wanted nothing more than to rip Jeremy apart and drain every last millimetre of blood from his veins. Jeremy had never been scared of Stefan before. Compared to Damon - who’d actually killed Jeremy and would have succeeded in the teen’s permanent death if not for his Gilbert Ring - Stefan was a Saint and had always worked to keep, as many people as possible, safe from the ever relentless suffocating tide of the supernatural. Now, Jeremy could only feel fear for the thing that crouched before him and he wondered if he was finally getting a peek of the ‘monster’ that Stefan had always spoke hauntingly about…

“Easy, little brother,” Klaus smiled, an expression which would have been warm and comforting on anyone else, “Don’t worry about the Ripper. He’s perfectly safe.”

“Ripper?” Jeremy’s frown deepened, then he looked around, spotting Katherine seated on the arm of the sofa, arms folded and expression carefully blank, and Elijah, lying on the floor, skin grey and dark veins spidered over his exposed skin, clearly dead, “What? I-“

“Are you hungry, brother?” Klaus interrupted and Jeremy was far too confused and far too fearful to refute the familial claim at that very moment. With the mention of food, Jeremy’s stomach growled with irritation and agreement, making the teen flush with slight embarrassment before he gave a tentative nod. Klaus stretched his lips into something a little bit more real, as he picked up a package from the opposite counter behind him and offered it to the teen, “From what I understand, you frequent that small restaurant in town. I had Katerina pick something up for you. Come, take a seat,” he gestured to the space beside him.

Jeremy stared at the hybrid warily. He didn’t want to get closer to the murderer, he didn’t even want to hear that stupid and obnoxious voice of his, but there was no chance of Jeremy even making a step towards the door, let alone actually escaping. Maybe, with the help of Stefan, they could both get away, but just looking at his sister’s boyfriend, Jeremy could see that Stefan was more in need of his help than the other way around. He was stuck here, with a maniac. Not even Elijah could help him anymore…

“Henrik,” Klaus’ sharp tone ripped Jeremy away from his thoughts as his eyes instantly flicked up to connect with intense blue, “You will sit down and eat. One way or another…” It didn’t take a genius to figure out what Klaus was threatening him with…

Tense as a board, Jeremy forced his legs to move, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other as he made his way closer to Klaus through the thick silence of the room. It felt like Jeremy was walking to his death and he couldn’t stop the small trembles of fear that showed as he attempted and failed to put on a brave front. Robotically, Jeremy reached of the stall chair beside Klaus, where he’s placed the food and cautiously sat down, tense and ready to bolt at the first possible sign of danger.

Strangely, just as Jeremy began to reach to unpack the bag and eat, Klaus took over. Jeremy could do nothing but stare disbelievingly as Klaus leaned over the counter slightly and started to rip open the brown paper bag, tearing the package for easier and quicker access before he started to take out the orange polystyrene containers, helpfully setting them in front of Jeremy and opening the lid for him. Jeremy blinked at the outlandish behaviour and could do nothing more than open his mouth in protest when Klaus placed some cutlery beside him as well as a few bottles of different sauces that Jeremy hadn’t noticed before.

It was like a mother trying to provide for her child…

With that disturbing analogy, Jeremy frowned and went to give a scathing retort when the heavenly smell of food finally registered to his nose. Mouth watering and his stomach groaning more than ever, Jeremy became even more aware of the fact that he hadn’t eaten anything in a long while. He couldn’t remember the last time he ate, but he remembered that the last time food was offered up to him, Jeremy had to turn it away - his fear and anxiety for what would happen to his sister and his girlfriend being too much for him to stomach. Troubles forgotten in favour of nourishment, Jeremy swiftly picked up the large burger, uncaring that half of it was in danger of falling out the end and that his hands were decorated with smudges of the ketchup and started to devour his meal. As Jeremy relished in the burger, eating a few chips between the huge mouthfuls, he ignored the eyes on him, he ignored the fact that he was surrounded by vampires and he ignored the fact that Klaus had just gotten him a pint of water from the tap.

All too soon, the meal was consumed and after downing the entire glass of water, Jeremy’s hunger and thirst were completely stated, leaving him to slowly come to the realisation that he’d eaten the entire meal in under five minutes while acting like some scavenging animal… Cheeks beet-red, Jeremy reluctantly looked up from the counter, catching Katherine’s disgusted glances, Stefan’s borderline delirious staring and Klaus’s very pleased and very amused looks.

For a moment, Jeremy had the urge to apologise for his lack of table manners, the voice of his scolding mother echoing in his head from what felt like a life time ago, but he stopped himself just in time. Clenching his stiff fingers into a fist, Jeremy clenched his jaw. He had nothing to apologise for. He’d been kidnapped by a delusional vampire-werewolf hybrid and had been locked in a room with no food, water or any possible access to a bathroom - they should be thankful that the faint smell of an unwashed teenager was the only scent lingering in that room…

Suddenly, Jeremy felt something rough on the side of his face and flinched away, causing the moment to stop. With a quick glance to the side, Jeremy saw that Klaus had been attempting to rub some smears of ketchup from Jeremy’s face with a clothe.

“Come, come, brother,” Klaus chuckled, with a edge to it that made Jeremy shiver with fear, “I was only trying to help."

Cheeks inflaming to compensate his overwhelming surge of embarrassment, Jeremy shook his head, “I-I can do that… Please,” the teen added when Klaus looked like he was going to ignore Jeremy’s claim and continue wiping the human’s face like he was an incompetent child.

The plea seemed to do something for the ancient vampire as he paused before a blooming smile lifted his cheeks as he offered the clothe, which Jeremy hesitantly took and then started to furiously wipe his face and hands of leftover food. It was hard to do anything with the weight of the three stronger brings’ stares on him, but Jeremy swiftly powered through and finished before putting the clothe back on the table.

The silence felt almost suffocating and Jeremy felt like the three were just staring at him, devouring him with their eyes, hungry, possessive eyes…

“Why is Stefan here?” Jeremy spoke up, unable to take the silence for much longer.

“Stefan’s here because Damon had a little run in with the local werewolf and my blood is the cure,” Klaus smirked at the weakly glaring vampire, a cruel glint in his sky-blue eyes, “But, as we all know: nothing in this world is for free.”

“Damon got bit?” Jeremy asked, doe brown eyes widening with shock. Jeremy may have been out of the loop for quite a bit of the supernatural details - at Elena’s request - but he was aware enough to know what happened to a vampire when they get bitten by a werewolf. Elena had been the one to tell him about her firsthand experience with Rose - a vampire that Jeremy’s never mer before - warning him from ever interacting with such a horrific case. She’d also told him that it was a death sentence. No cure… Until now, at least…

Klaus chuckled, an evil sound that seemed to fill up the entire apartment, “He actually got bit while trying to delay my plans. As a result, your aunt Jenna paid the price.”

At that declaration, Jeremy’s entire form seemed to stiffen. The teen had known that his aunt had died. He’d known that both Elena and Jenna had died from Katherine telling him, but a small part of him hadn’t believed her. A small naïve part of him had hoped that he’d crash through his front door and see his Aunt Jenna cooking in the kitchen with Alaric with Elena and Stefan upstairs in her room. But, with Klaus’ confirmation in that bragging tone, Jeremy’s small flame of hope was extinguished like a lit candle in the rain, only to ignite into an explosion of hurt and fury in his chest.

“No more,” Stefan suddenly growled out, gaining Klaus’ attention and stopping Jeremy from doing something stupid, like punching the thousand-years-old hybrid in the face, “Not until you give me the cure.”

Klaus looked down at Stefan a light in his eyes that made Jeremy shift as he attempted to suppress his fear. There was something about that look in the ancient hybrid’s piercing blue eyes, like he was looking down at a bug that had no understanding that they were hanging off the bottom of the food chain. It showed how powerful Klaus really was and the fact that the hybrid was fully aware of that fact. “Not until we make a deal,” he tutted mockingly, as he fluidly slipped from his chair and inched closer to the panting vampire, "It's your choice, Stefan. You can either remain here living your life in Mystic Falls, or you can embrace what you truly are, leave town with me and Henrik, and save your brother's life.”

Instantly, Jeremy’s head snapped up towards the hybrid, eyes wide and shocked with horror slowly creeping at the edges. “What?” he blurted out unthinkingly, “I’m not going with you.”

As fast as Jeremy had blurted out the words, he wish he could take them back… The rooms seemed to freeze, every possible molecule holding its breath, time standing still, as the rooms dropped a few degrees.

The look that Klaus was giving him made Jeremy want to run and hide as fear gripped his heart with icy fingers and pressed threateningly on his throat.

“What was that, brother?” the blonde asked, tone light and easy with an undertone of warning, light blue eyes darkening with his rising anger.

Steeling his nerves and curling his fingers into a tight, grounding fist, Jeremy looked at the delusional hybrid, brown eyes trained on the man’s eyebrows as to avoid compulsion as much as he possibly could. “I’m not going with you,” he stated again, voice wavering only slightly at the end, “I’m staying here. This is my home. I go to school here, I have friends here, I have a girlfriend here. I can’t just leave that all behind.”

Klaus regarded him with cold eyes that didn’t match the smirk on his face, “All those trivial things you worry about are meaningless. Transferring schools is an easy task and with my history of knowledge, public schooling isn’t even an issue. Your friends are replaceable, your ‘girlfriend’,” he spat out the word as if it was a deceased thing on his tongue, “Is replaceable. And your home is empty, no other ‘family members’ are tying you here, anymore-“

“Yeah, because you killed them all!” Jeremy spoke over anger and pain tinting his words, but it was as if Klaus didn’t hear him as he carried on talking.

“And, more importantly,” he loomed over Jeremy, dark eyes tinting red as black veins emerging from his pale skin, “You don’t get a say in the matter.”

The dark tone had Jeremy holding his tongue, despite the fact that he desperately wanted to retort and fight the crazed hybrid. It was something about that tone that had a shiver of pure fear rushing down the teen’s spine, something that he was unfortunately becoming used to, and reminded him of the fact that just because Klaus viewed him as his ‘little brother’, didn’t mean he was exempt from any kind of pain or punishment that the hybrid saw fit. While it seemed unlikely that the blond would kill Jeremy without a second thought, Elijah’s still and grey body a few feet away was a prime example of what Klaus did to those that betrayed or fought him.

Jeremy’s prolonged silence seemed to be answer enough for the temperamental hybrid as he turned his attention back to a rigid Stefan and let his lips quirk up into something that all had learned to dread. Casually, Klaus tossed the hunched vampire a bag of blood, watching with gleaming eyes as Stefan attempted to inhale it in a matter of second.

“Sweetheart,” Klaus called out with a mocking endearment as he finally turned his attention to the only being that hadn’t said a word since Jeremy had woken up. As soon as the hybrid and vampire doppelgänger made eye contact, Jeremy watched Klaus’ eyes contract as he compelled her, “Take this to Damon and then come right back,” he ordered sternly as he offered the small vial of blood to her, which she took almost robotically.

“You want me to leave?” Katherine asked as she curled her fingers around the small glass bottle, a breathy and hopeful tone in his voice that sent alarm bells off in Jeremy’s head.

“No!” Stefan shouted, eyes wide with fear and desperation as he watched the exchange.

“Yes,” Klaus smiled with a hint of teeth, “And if I were you,” he started, but didn’t get the chance to finish as Katherine blurred out the door without a second more of hesitation, leaving only empty air where she once stood, “I’d hurry,” he finished before he turned back to Stefan as he sat down in his chair.

The younger vampire looked at the hybrid with wide eyes, “She’ll never take it to him,” he stated with an edge of pleading, but Klaus merely looked indifferent, obviously unconcerned with the fact that Damon would die. Stefan hung his head as he looked at the blood smudged tiles of the kitchen floor, looking utterly broken as he repeated in a whisper, “She’ll never take it to him…”

* * *

Everything seemed to have gone to hell…

Jeremy had absolutely no choice in following the two immortal beings as Klaus kept a firm grip on his wrist, tightening and threatening to bruise whenever Jeremy pulled or lagged behind too much for his liking. If Jeremy wasn’t internally freaking out and fearing for his life, he would have felt embarrassed at the fact that Klaus was treating him like a wandering child. The teen had no say in anything that happened as men entered Alaric’s apartment, taking Elijah’s body as Klaus lead them to some truck with a bunch of coffins in, the hybrid dragging Jeremy by the wrist the entire time as Stefan stiffly followed, looking as if the world had just crumbled around him.

Jeremy could only watch in horror as Klaus said his goodbyes to Elijah before he closed the casket and Jeremy looked around at the other polished wooden boxes. Was that the rest of Klaus’ family? Jeremy paled at the thought? Was this what Klaus would do to him if he stepped out of line too much? Would he kill Jeremy and stuff him in one of his caskets and be dragged around the country with the hybrid, kept as some sort of memento? From the smirk that Klaus aimed at Jeremy as the teen came to his sudden realisation, Jeremy knew that the crazed hybrid would do just that…

When Stefan stared at the girl that was running away, sobbing hard with the terror that flowed through her, Jeremy knew exactly what would happen. As he tried to turn away from the scene, eyes closed and hand creeping up to cover his ears and he ducked his head down, Klaus grabbed Jeremy with steel-like hands. In an instant, Klaus had turned Jeremy around, pressing the teen to his chest as the hybrid pinned his arms down and gripped his face so he couldn’t look away from Stefan and the running girl. Jeremy slammed his eyes closed, unwilling to witness his sister’s boyfriend killing - no, ‘hunting’ was a more correct term - an innocent girl, who could have been no older than Jeremy himself.

“Open your eyes, Henrik,” Klaus hissed in his ear and Jeremy would have ignored the command if the pain of Klaus’ fingering digging into his jaw hadn’t forced him to peel them open. “You don’t want to miss this. Seeing a Ripper on the hunt is a very rare thing to witness.”

Jeremy felt tears run down his face as he was forced to watch Stefan speed up to the girl, face demonic as he buried his face into her neck, undeterred by her screams. The teen flinched in Klaus’ hold when the screaming was suddenly cut off as Stefan practically ripped her head off, the wet sound of it dropping and rolling across the ground making Jeremy want to throw up. Finally, Klaus seemed to allow Jeremy to turn away from the nightmarish scene, but didn’t allow the teen to step away as he brought a gentle hand to the back of Jeremy’s head, long fingers carding through the dark locks as he provided comfort, making soothing noises over the grotesque sounds of Stefan feeding.

Then, from one moment to the next, Jeremy was placed in the back seat of a car, child-locks clicking into place, as Klaus drove and Stefan sat silently in the passenger seat. Klaus was the only one who seemed to be enjoying the suffocating silence as he drove, always going a little over the speed limit, as Stefan stared ahead blankly. The vampire was wearing a new clean shirt to replace the blood soaked one, but Jeremy could still see the slight stain of blood over the man’s hands and under his fingernails, where he hadn’t been able to wash it all away.

Feeling sick at the memory, Jeremy went back to silently looking out the window, stare blank as he watched the forest trees whizz by him. It was only when he saw the sign: ‘You are now leaving Mystic Falls’ did Jeremy feel the last of his hope drain away. Fear and dread settled heavily in his stomach as they drove further and further away from the town that he called home and further away from the people who could have possibly helped him escape from the hybrid’s clutches… Jeremy knew that there would be very little chance of ever escaping from Klaus now…

And, from the knowing look that Klaus was giving Jeremy through his rearview mirror, he knew it too…


End file.
